Ireland & Ethiopia

Ireland, my history-
Ethiopia, my future!
http://www.trocaire.ie/

Spot and Pinkey

Anyone who knows me well is looking at the title of this post and dreading what it might mean.......yes, your right, we have two new additions to our family. Kiana went on a sleep over on Saturday and came home with two new pets. Quite a sleep over right? Thankfully Spot and Pinkey are hermit crabs and do not require too much input from Fred or myself. I am not sure how I feel about keeping hermit crabs since they do not reproduce in captivity, but Kiana and I did discuss the negative factors involved in taking animals out of their original, wild habitats. So although they are not rescued or abandoned animals we are still welcoming them into our very animal friendly home :)
I strongly object to exploiting pets for profitable gain. Approximately every eight seconds an animal is euthanized in a shelter because no one has adopted them. Every choice to breed or buy a pet is one more chance for a shelter animal to be adopted dashed. Please spay and neuter! http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/spay_day_usa_spotlights.html
Any type or breed of animal is available to be adopted if you truly try hard enough. http://www.petfinder.org/ is a great place to start.

A few links to share: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-elliott/rich-people-behaving-badl_b_47185.html This is a great article that speaks to some of the inequalities in our country. And this article I thought was very interesting concerning our deplorable health care system- http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/29/working-america-takes-on-big-pharma/
Speaking of our lousy health care system.....I waited over three months to get an appointment at the dental clinic at a hospital an hour away from us last Friday. I went in and explained that I was having alot of pain in my upper/left/sort of back tooth. After taking x rays I was told I would need a root canal costing approximately $1200.00 and no, there was no payment plan. Now keep in mind I pay $500.00 a month for our family "health plan" that does not include any dental or eye care. Yet between Fred and I we actually make too much money to qualify for any assistance type health programs. So anyway, I immediately started crying. I told them I am too young to be loosing another tooth! Never the less there was apparently no alternative and the tooth had to be yanked. I was laying with my head back and my mouth uncomfortably open, and I was sobbing. The student doctor actually told me I would need to calm down in order for him to finish. They did not have nitric oxide, just three shots of novocaine, so I could hear every sound. It was awful. A friend from Ecuador suggested we travel there and get our dentistry work done for far, far cheaper. But why? This is America right? Equal opportunity for all? Equal treatment? I think not.

"We are born into a vast room whose walls consist of a thousand doors of possibility. Each door is flung open to the world outside, and the room is filled with light and noise. We close some of the doors deliberately, sometimes with fear, sometimes with calm certainty. Others seem to close by themselves, some so quietly that we do not even notice."

-Terry Teachout

Elspeth and Delaney

This is my sister Elspeth who is four years older than me. Her first daughter Delaney was born last year and she is such a cutie! It is nice that we will have children relatively close in age, but unfortunately they live in Los Angeles, and we are in Connecticut. Having siblings creates an interesting relationship doesn't it? I have two sisters and one brother, and we are all fairly spread apart- both in age and in distance. I love my siblings very much, and rejoice in their joys in life. But I do not know any of them very well, not the deep connection kind of knowledge. I do not have the opportunity for serious one on one conversations, and true and deep questions require time. My older sister has always been very beautiful, very thin (yes, I have issues) and super intelligent and driven. I do not know any other woman with the brain power that she has. But we both have our own struggles, and now as working mothers we can share some of those challenges. Elspeth has always supported my choice to devout myself to motherhood and parenting, and for that I cant thank her enough. They are California girls now!

"Progress in every age results only from the fact that there are some men and women who refuse to believe that what they know to be right cannot be done."

-Russell W. Davenport

Orphans Know More

My husband

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. "

--Richard Bach

"We're never so vulnerable as when we trust someone -- but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy." -Walter Anderson

Just some photos

Lenea, Kiana and Kiana- so much love!

My sister Maeve and her boyfriend Manny, awwww :)

After Easter meal photos

We celebrated Easter at our house this year. Fred made quite a bit of food and apparently it had a sleepy effect on my family members.

Another blow for foster care :(

Nation
Chicago's Catholic Charities to Cut Foster Care
by David Schaper
All Things Considered, April 26, 2007 · Catholic Charities in Chicago says it has to end its foster care program, which, for almost 90 years, has been one of the largest agencies placing children with foster families because of abuse or neglect.
Because of a $12 million lawsuit settlement, the Catholic social service agency can no longer get insurance for its foster care program, a problem that may be an ominous sign for child welfare agencies across the country.

Quote

"We are coming to understand health not as the absence of disease, but rather as the process by which individuals maintain their sense of coherence (i.e. sense that life is comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful) and ability to function in the face of changes in themselves and their relationships with their environment."

-Aaron Antonovsky

Ethiopian Links: http://swerl.blogspot.com/

Wow: http://www.antiracistparent.com/

AIDS - Hidden Faces

This is beautifully done. There are so many children suffering, it seems so overwhelming. I do believe in my heart however, that change happens one step at a time.

AIDS - A Cry In Africa

Watching this video makes me want to go to Ethiopia now, live there, work there and wait for our son! This video inspires me....I know my path in life includes Africa, some way, some how.

Links, links

I love passing on interesting information that I find! This is a link for Habitat for Humanity- a specific trip to Ethiopia: http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/trip_desc.aspx?type=1&code=gv8183 Not that I could afford this, but if you can, what a great experience!
Here is a link for adoptive parents who are interested in breastfeeding. I cant wait until I have an extra hour or so to read everything! http://asklenore.com/
And this is a link for parents, especially moms, to meet on the web and share stories and frustrations or feelings in general. A meeting place on the web seems a bit strange, but these days you have to go wherever you can find the support you need. http://www.mayasmom.com/

And of course, a few quotes I love to share:

"In a world where change is inevitable and continuous, the need to achieve that change without violence is essential for survival."

--Andrew Young

"How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it."

--Jim Valvano

"Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be."

--Samuel Johnson

"The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live."

--Mortimer Adler

Here's an interesting link! My mothers side of the family are Delaney's, this is also the first name of my niece. I found this interesting article about my mothers first cousin Robert with whom she grew up with in New Jersey- Yay for big Irish families :)

http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2003/writing/100-250/100-250.features.third1.html

Or this one: http://www.nbra.net/News/tabid/235/Default.aspx Or: http://www.jimmyv.org/archives/news.cfm?newsid=105 Wikipedia?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Delaney_(basketball_referee) Nice: http://www.naso.org/benefits/goldwhistle/bobdelaney.htm Or even: http://thehypeguy.com/2006/06/12/bob-delaney-is-gangsta/ (a swear is in that link though).

Dinner in Ethiopia

I have not spent any time this month posting in my blog, and I have so much information to pass on. This article was in the New York Times about dinner in Ethiopia.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/travel/18choicetables.html?ex=1332648000&en=f8d404cbd5d8dab9&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Choice Tables Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Where the Dinner Table Is an Altar of Thanks
By DANIELLE PERGAMENT
Published: March 18, 2007
Despite its lack of culinary fanfare, the capital city of Ethiopia has a rich and unexpected food culture.

A quote I liked from this article:

"...And at the heart of every Ethiopian meal is injera. Basically a pancake — or more accurately, a really, really big pancake — injera is made from tef, a sour-wheat-like grain that is mixed with cool water and a pinch of yeast. But unlike a pancake, it isn’t flipped over, so the topside remains spongy, the better to sop up the vegetables and meat in the saucelike wat (sometimes spelled wot or wett) that is ladled on top. In a country where utensils are scarce, injera is not only your dinner plate, it’s also your knife, fork, spoon and sometimes napkin.
When a platter of injera arrives at the table, covered in dips of fresh, locally grown vegetables and farm-raised meats, it is immediately torn apart by everyone within arm’s reach. The ritual is as much about silent gratitude for what the land has offered, as it is about digging into a great meal."

I had a very humbling experience about two weeks ago. I received a beautiful note card with a generous donation and a lovely short tail of a family's experience with adoption. I had no idea someone could care and relate so well with the experience we are going through. I had always had the impression this was someone who perhaps didn't care for me so much, when it was actually just shyness on both our parts. I am so grateful to them for believing and for their kindness. I am humbled into remembering why an assumption can be such a step backwards. Straight forward honesty is always best.

On a different subject I recently received a racist e mail in my inbox. At first I thought it was from a stranger, and then realized it was from someone I knew, which amazed me any more. She was not even aware of how hurtful and negative the e mail was. I of course, had a scathing reply, but then I actually spoke with her and found out she was completely oblivious to the hatred contained in it. Uneducated? Ignorant? Perhaps all of the above. But the truth is its all around us, which brings me to the next link:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704120010

"It's not just Imus". The article is worth reading because it exposes the continued air of racism that is so prevalent in our society. That had to be one of the worst things about receiving that e mail, knowing that individuals who we see every day still feel anger towards other people they do not know. I just can not understand how someone could see my daughter, or any child for that matter, and have those feelings in their heart. Sad.

Interesting Information

My mother sent me this information she received from Susan Howard of http://www.iaswece.org/ (International Association for Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education) and I thought I would pass it on.

ETHIOPIA
The first Waldorf kindergarten in Ethiopia is finally being realized! It is intended to restore hope
and help to overcome the horrible consequences of napalm bombing during the war. Through the initiative of Dr. Atasbaha Gebre-Selassie and Dorothea Roenpage, a
German Waldorf educator who lived in Ethiopia for many
years, a newly built kindergarten, Hiwotay Merebet,
(“protected home”) with two Ethiopian kindergarten
teachers, opened on the 1st of October 2006. They are
waiting for care and help from experienced Waldorf pedagogues from Germany. An early childhood/kindergarten
training program is developing at the same time, built up
and supported by Ethiopians and a team of project leaders from Germany.
The kindergarten is built to have six groups and to give the
children affected from war a home. The initiative group is
concerned to bring the background and possibilities of Waldorf education in line with living impulses in the Ethiopian culture.
This building initiative is led and very much supported by Dr.
Atsbaha G. Selassie. Attention is being paid that during the
construction of the kindergarten, an organic garden with
vegetables and herbs is being developed, to serve as pro-
phylaxis and support to healing of diseases and to offer a
new perspective of the work of mothers.
Project leaders are Judith Dausend, Dorothea Roenpage,
and Angelika Wagner, Germany. wagnermail@gmx.de

My mom: http://www.awsna.org/awsna-organization.html